How do you craft your stories?

[Claire]

I am curious how other authors craft their stories. Do you have a scene in mind that you really want to write and then create characters and plot around that scene? Or do you start with some general idea, create a basic outline for the plot and then design the individual scenes as you bring that plot to life? And how much is your writing influenced by your personal kinks?

For me, I have usually some idea that I like to explore in my writing and the content of the individual scenes is designed in service of that. For example, in Späte Genugtuung (English: Late Satisfaction) I knew that I wanted to explore sexual abuse in relationships with a large power imbalance where the victim accepts their abuse or doesn't speak up afterwards because of that power imbalance. I was thinking of these MeToo cases between accomplished director and upcoming actor/actress or photographer and model. I ended up using a professor-student relationship to explore that theme.

When it comes to kinks, I sometimes include elements in my stories that I don't care much about. Both Späte Genugtuung and Men at War include anal scenes because I thought that they just made sense in the context of the story, but not because I particularly care for those scenes.

So what it is like for you? What's typically the spark that gives rise to a new idea for you and how do you give shape to its final form?

[LaLia]

Interesting and exciting question, one that you don't even consciously think about.

For me, it varies. Usually, I piece together small pieces of fantasies. A scenario, a location, or something like that, and I build the plot around that. Sometimes, though, a specific keyword is enough. A good example is my "Ghost of Valentine's Day" story. I actually wanted to base my story around the origins of this tradition, but I couldn't really think of anything good. Somehow, I ended up with old customs and thus a myth about a fictional ghost.

In general, I often don't need much, and at least the stories I write in the first person are mostly fantasies I've had myself. My own kinks are incorporated more, while with other stories, I simply go with what fits the story.

By the way, series and movies are also a good trigger for me, which is why I quite enjoy fan fiction.

[Vela Nanashi]

For me I do not plan much if at all, I just want some concept seeds like a character and a situation or such, then I figure out a name for the character usually and breathe life into them so they can operate semi independently from me on my wetware (brain), some may call that a tulpa sort of, then I drop them into the situation and watch what happens, and try to document it all, often I traverse the story sitting in their mind, using their senses, and that can be rather intense, and I try to really capture as much as I can in as much detail as I can, and I still lose most of it.

As for what themes, and fetishes and such, yes I like stories that have a specific set of things that I personally like, fantasy, magic, scifi, not close to our world or sometimes even our universe, that is what I like, as I really like escaping from this world into my stories. I also sometimes intentionally explore things that disgusts me, or makes me feel revulsion or sadness or fear or anxiety or hate or anger, just to try to understand myself, why I feel those things, and to weaken my sensitivity to that thing, so that if I encounter it maybe I can act more rationally than just get captured by my emotions and let them control me.

I sometimes write stories for others too, based on a request, and then I try to understand what they want, and try to cater to that, but I do not always succeed at that, as stories will still almost always be made for me as well.

[Shocker]

I usually have one single picture in mind, it's what gets me excited and in the mood to write. I then decide who the people are I'm seeing in my mind, where I start the story, and allow it to develop towards that picture. So all fairly simple.

[Claire]

A good example is my "Ghost of Valentine's Day" story. I actually wanted to base my story around the origins of this tradition, but I couldn't really think of anything good. Somehow, I ended up with old customs and thus a myth about a fictional ghost.

Did you then try do some research on real myths and folktales to see whether there is one out there that fit your story? I think you told me before that you made up the myth that the story is based on. But that might of course have been because you couldn't find a real one that fit.

and try to document it all

That definitely comes through in your writing.

I usually have one single picture in mind, it's what gets me excited and in the mood to write. I then decide who the people are I'm seeing in my mind, where I start the story, and allow it to develop towards that picture. So all fairly simple.

I wouldn't call that simple at all. That sounds so hard to do for me.

[Claire]

I want to try something. Let me share with you how my planning process for You worked and how that informed the decisions I made for the story. I'm curious whether you find that interesting.

It all started with the idea that I wanted to go for maximum immersion with the goal to make readers, but especially men, feel implicated by the rapist's action. Liking that story should feel uncomfortable. Then I asked myself: How do I do that? And I thought that the second person narrator is ideal for that purpose. What better way to implicate someone than to directly address them with "You are doing this."? The reader either accepts the premise that they are the one acting or they stop reading.

Then I knew that I need to make the rapist relatable in some sense at least. I presume that nobody here is an actual rapist, so let's make the rapist inexperienced. The methodical hunter, the cold blooded serial rapist as the main character wouldn't work for this story, that is to unrelatable. To convey that inexperience,I wanted the rapist to act spontaneously, not planned, and I wanted him to struggle, I wanted him to not know how to do this.

I also knew that for the rapist to stay relatable, I could not have him be completely unaffected by the suffering he inflicts upon his victim. Therefore, I decided early on that the story would end with the sentence "What have you done?" as regret catches up to him after he has finished.

Next I decided to keep both the rapist and the victim totally vague in their descriptions. No names, no age, barely any description of their physical appearance. You, the reader, are supposed to project yourself onto the protagonist. So I can't describe him as a 47 year old software engineer who is 1.87m tall with a small belly and grey long hair. He is just some guy who took a detour through a park on his way home from work, that's all you know. I needed to avoid the thought "That guy is not me." to pop up in the reader's head.

I approached the victim similarly. I wanted him to see someone in her he knew, someone he misses. But again, I never specify whether this is an ex-girlfriend, a dead wife, a woman he loved but never had the relationship with he wanted. When I asked people in a poll on RavishU whether they had a specific woman in mind while reading, 50% of those who voted said yes (small sample size though). So that worked pretty well I think.

Then I decided to make loneliness the motivating factor for his actions, the desire to matter in someone else's life. I think that is deeply human and very relatable to many people. Who hasn't felt lonely at some point in their life, right? So the story sets the tone with the first sentence "You are alone."

From that it follows almost naturally to have the story and him climax with the realization that in this moment that he rapes her he is not alone. I knew this would have to be the thing that sends him over the edge.

With all I have said so far, I was naturally restricted to write a short story. That might seem obvious, but the vagueness of the character descriptions and motivations commited me to keeping the story short. How do you keep this vagueness up in a long story like Record Chaser without it becoming absurd? Better writers than me might be able to do it, but that would be beyond my abilities as a writer I think.

Let's take stock: I knew that I wanted to write a second person short story about a man raping a woman during a chance encounter with the intended goal to have (male) readers project themselves onto the main character and feel implicated by his actions. I knew that the story starts with "You are alone", climaxes with "You are not alone" and ends with "What have you done?" The two characters in the story would stay as vague as possible to allow the reader to project themself and a woman they know/miss onto the characters. Loneliness would be the defining motivation for the protagonist's actions and he would be inexperienced at what he does. The woman he attacks would feel familiar to him without being someone he actually knows.

Then I started writing. Everything else you read in the story are details that are informed by that framework.

[Vela Nanashi]

I found that interesting to read. I have also wanted to experiment more than once with second person, for that more intense connection. However I have mostly moved on to writing first person instead, as to me it is easier to connect to a character that speaks as I would "I think, do, feel" while when it comes to second person is works best for passive characters that have things done to them.

One exception is when writing a role playing story with two characters, then I can write my own character with first person, and then describe things "you see, you taste, you hear" etc to the other player's character, that I think is more intense than going for third person that is so very common in role plays.

Second person does make it hard to insert things like "you think" and "you feel" (emotions not senses), as that requires the reader be very willing to accept that being put on them, I think that fails for dominant people, it may be easier for submissive people to accept that, but I may just be talking out of my ass about that.

I still love experimenting with second person and trying to make it work though, or just for the challenge of it.

There are also challenges one could do that plays with the tense (present, past etc) of a story, though some time travel language gets more hilarious than useful "Next week I will have moved the banana peel one month ago in Bob's garage, so he slips on it and avoids being hit by the car that rips through his garage" (next week my personal time, month ago (relative to current temporal location) (probably not the best example of time travel talk though

I tend to prefer first person and present tense for the intensity that can be conveyed. Though I have also been toying with writing a story from just an external observer's point of view sometime, where one just glimpses the action, so not the omniscient third person narrator.

[Blue]

The way I write my stories is completely different.

Sometimes a completely everyday situation is enough to spark the inspiration. And if I have the time and the inspiration, I sit down and write the story in one sitting.

Otherwise, there are stories where I first come up with a framework around which I then write the story. These are usually continuation stories, where part by part develops and often involve plot lines that weren't actually planned.

But what I like best about writing is when something spontaneously occurs to me. These are usually short but intense stories, and usually written in the first person.

[Mister X]

It is very interesting to read what you wanted to achieve with the story. Thank you! It worked for me, I was able to put myself in the protagonist's shoes.

[HistBuff]

Typically, I'll get inspired by something I read about an event or some movie I watch. A few examples... Wrong Turn In Southern India was inspired by a "house trial" judged by elders of some country village, somewhere in Southern India, about a middle-aged man who had raped a neighbors wife. The sentence was simple and carried out fortwith -- The wronged husband was to take the accused's daughter, drag her in a small wood and use her all he wants for two hours. So my story is loosely based on a true event.

Mutiny In Léopoldville -- There really were rumors among the Force publique's soldiers that the Belgium government in Brussels had requested military help from the Kremlin (God knows how this tall tale ever got traction!) and that planes were on their way with Soviet troops to land in Léopoldville and disarm the mutineers. And yes, the Soviet delegation who were still staying in a hotel downtown were raided by angry soldiers. Of course I take liberties as to who was there and the scale of the attack, but this one too has a degree of truth in it.

Last Command -- When I watched this 1955 movie, one of Sterling Hayden's best performances, I noticed there was a clear ellipse between the moment the Mexicans overrun Fort Alamo (with the women screaming in the background) and this... Yes, this movie was in technicolor.



One could say they were mourning loved ones, but the Mexicans treated them right, etc. But given the Code, this is about the closest you could get from gang-rape scenes in a 1955 movie, and I'm pretty sure some babyboomers born the following year were conceived by wives who had rape fantasies and identified with Consuelo. I immediately felt inspired and proceeded to show what I think happened to the women in Fort Alamo in the assault's aftermath.